FINAL: West Virginia still can’t handle Wildcats

Kansas State running back DeMarcus Robinson (20) celebrates with Deante Burton (6) and Boston Stiverson (77) after making a first-quarter touchdown catch at West Virginia.

 

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — After a parade of seniors, West Virginia faced No. 12 Kansas State at Milan Puskar Stadium.

It was 25 degrees outside but a toasty 76 in the press box, the vantage point for live updates throughout the game:

— FINAL: Kansas State wins 26-20

Stats of note: K-State ran for 1 yard. On 29 carries.

It’s hard to comprehend how the Wildcats won with that puny rushing output, but Jake Waters’ first 400-yard passing game—and more Tyler Lockett awesomeness—made up for it. Lockett finished with 10 catches for 196 yards.

Stats of note: West Virginia outgained K-State 433-401.

Stats of note: Skyler Howard threw 198 yards and two touchdowns in relief of Trickett, who we learned after the game had suffered a concussion.

Stats of note: K-State registered four sacks while West Virginia generated none.

— FINAL: Kansas State wins 26-20

— Headed down for interviews. Will return with postgame reaction.

— K-State actually recovering the onside kick is strange, considering how weird this game has been.

Josh Lambert 25-yard field goal (0:53 fourth quarter) K-State leads 26-20
Skyler Howard converted a fourth-and-8 pass to Alford for 17 yards and WVU moved into the red zone with a no-huddle 11-play drive. On fourth-and-5 at the K-State 8, Holgorsen wisely sent on Lambert, who booted through the kick.

Matthew McCrane 32-yard field goal (2:52 fourth quarter) K-State leads 26-17
The Wildcats consumed 4:31 on a 49-yard drive and McCrane’s kick made it a two-score lead. Lockett was huge again with catches of 15 and 28. He has 10 receptions for 196 yards—his third amazing performance against WVU.

—With all that momentum building, Molinari pushed his kickoff out of bounds. Ugh.

Skyler Howard 53-yard touchdown pass to Mario Alford (7:23 fourth quarter) K-State leads 23-17
Dana Holgorsen once called Alford the fastest guy on the planet, and facetious or not, damn if he didn’t look it on that touchdown catch. A simple crossing route turned into a Senior Night highlight as Alford outran the Wildcats secondary.

— After Lockett caught a 54-yarder, K-State was on the verge of putting the game out of reach. But the Big 12’s best red-zone offense was stuffed again and McCrane badly hooked a 22-yard field goal.

— West Virginia needed 15 plays and nearly five minutes to move into scoring position … and got nothing. Howard’s fourth-and-7 pass fell incomplete from the K-State 26. That makes four scoreless trips inside the 30 for West Virginia tonight.

— We just learned that Trickett is done for the game. He finished 12-of-25 for 112 yards and two INTs.

END OF THIRD QUARTER (K-State leads 23-10)

Matthew McCrane 19-yard field goal (2:13 third quarter) K-State leads 23-10
The Mountaineers defense limited the damage from the special-teams blunder by forcing a kick, and it did so after K-State faced first-and-goal from the 3. Three straight keepers by Waters went nowhere as Wes Tonkery, Nick Kwiatkoski and Shaq Petteway made stops.

— West Virginia forced a three-and-out only to watch the punt-return unit commit harakiri. On the same play, Jarrod Harper roughed the punter on one end and Vernon Davis casually allowed the bouncing punt to hit his foot on the other. K-State recovered at the West Virginia 16.

Skyler Howard 7-yard touchdown pass to Kevin White (6:24 third quarter) K-State leads 20-10
With Trickett taken to the locker room, the sophomore backup Howard came on for his first meaningful action of the season. He went 4-of-4 for 56 yards with a 16-yard scramble. A big-time relief appearance for the juco transfer.

Matthew McCrane 44-yard field goal (9:29 third quarter) K-State leads 20-3
The Wildcats move 61 yards on seven plays, aided by a hands-to-the face foul on Shaq Riddick. Curry Sexton made two grabs worth 33 yards on the drive and Lockett caught a 16-yarder. Waters improved to 16-of-20 for 244 yards.

— Smallwood runs for 12 and Shell rambles for 18 to get WVU moving. Then came the Mountaineers’ third turnover of the night—as Trickett’s pass whizzed by Smallwood and into the diving arms of Dante Barrett at the K-State 12.

— K-State went three-and-out on its opening series of the second half.

START OF THIRD QUARTER

— The players have returned to the field but some of the fans have not.

END OF HALF (K-State leads 17-3)

— Trickett threw a late-half interception to Randall Evans that looked like a pick-six, but the quarterback made a lunging tackle at the WVU 24. That not only saved a touchdown, but K-State even failed to convert the field goal when Kyle Rose (NOSE GUARD VERTICAL!!!!) blocked the McCrane’s 34-yard kick.

Tyler Lockett 48-yard punt return (1:12 second quarter) K-State leads 17-3
West Virginia’s special teams have had better seasons. That makes four return TDs overall and three against the punt team.

— Mountaineer killer Tyler Lockett fumbled the kickoff on a hit by Justin Arndt and Dayron Wilson recovers at the K-State 22. (West Virginia just doubled its fumble-recovery total for the season!!!!) Then weirdness ensued: Trickett’s third-down pass ricocheted off Jordan Thompson at the 5 and into the arms of a K-State defender, who redirected the ball mid-rollover to Kevin White standing several yards away. Alas, the surefire-ESPY touchdown was overturned because the ball touched the turf beneath the defender. … After all that, Lambert mishit a 40-yard kick that fell wide right.

Josh Lambert 47-yard field goal (8:10 second quarter) K-State leads 10-3
West Virginia turned a clunky-looking 12-play, 44-yard drive into points … barely. Lambert’s kick barely scraped over the crossbar. But it looks like he drilled in the box score.

Matthew McCrane 36-yard field goal (12:53 second quarter) K-State leads 10-0
The Wildcats benefited from an iffy pass-interference flag on K.J. Dillon to reach the WVU 10. Then came a slightly wild option pitch by Waters, which Robinson tracked down for a 14-yard loss. Still, Waters nearly made up for the fumble by squeezing a third-and-20 pass into the end zone, only to see Kody Cook drop it while surrounded by three defenders.

— Zach Trujillo, apparently dressed as the Invisible Man, ran uncovered for 49 yards through the West Virginia defense.

END OF FIRST QUARTER

— K-State went three-and-out starting from its 4. And then WVU went three-and-out starting from its 42.

— The good news for West Virginia? It covered 69 yards in 11 plays—highlighted by Kevin White catches on third-and-11 and third-and-16. But on first down from the K-State 2, Wendell Smallwood dropped what looked to be a clean handoff. Dylan Schellenberg recovered for the Wildcats as Holgorsen yelled, “Are you (kidding) me?”

Jake Waters 7-yard pass to DeMarcus Robinson (8:57 first quarter) K-State leads 7-0
The eight-play 49-yard drive began with Kody Cook’s 32-yard catch before K-State converted two third-and-longs. Waters hit Lockett for 11 on third-and-10, and then on third-and-goal, Waters bought time and found Robinson slipping out of the backfield.

— West Virginia’s first drive started at the 9 thanks to a holding flag on the kick-return blocker Xavier Preston. Six plays and 19 yards later, Nick O’Toole punted for 44 yards and Lockett returned it 23. K-State took over at the WVU 49. (Two quick special-teams advantages to the Wildcats.)

— Shannon Dawson predicts K-State will employ the bend-don’t-break defense: “They want you to methodically drive the ball down the field, I guess in their minds, if it takes 12 plays to get down the field then the chance of one of those plays being bad is pretty good.”

— WVU receiver Mario Alford anticipates more safety help, meaning the Mountaineers must be patient: “They’re going to be in some kind of Cover-2, where they’re going to give us the little 5-yard hitches. We’ve got to take advantage of those opportunities.”





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